Our congratulations to the Honorable MP of Thiruvananthapuram, Dr. Tharoor, on his new responsibility as Minister of State for Human Resources Development. We hope that this well-deserved and long-overdue appointment will help Dr. Tharoor in his mission to bring greater development to his constituency. Now, we in Thiruvananthapuram are used to the dastardly hijacking of some of the projects that have been conceptualized and planned for Thiruvananthapuram, to other parts of Kerala, in the name of communal or parochial votebank politics. Some of them like Indian Institute of Space Technology have been successfully resisted and bought to fruition, despite the attempts of vested interests of all kinds to the contrary.

But then we have also had quite a few “friendly hijacks” that unfortunately succeeded, including the sad cases of IIT-Madras satellite campus and the National Institute of Mental Health, in addition to the latest case of key Railway offices being spirited out of the Divisional HQ at Thiruvananthapuram.

Considering all of this water under the bridge, it’s best to move on and look forward to what can be done to remedy some of these past wrongs and to bring to fruition some of the newer development initiatives that have been conceptualized or are at various stages of execution in and around Thiruvananthapuram. In his new role, Dr. Tharoor can play an even more influential and energetic role in these initiatives. Some initiatives may be directly related to the Ministry of Human Resources while others would make use of Dr. Tharoor’s enhanced ability to influence members of the Union Cabinet from within.

Here is our forward-looking wishlist for Thiruvananthapuram in descending order of priority:

1) Facilitating the Environmental Clearance for the Vizhinjam deep water port and container transshipment terminal; ensuring Central support such as Cabotage waiver and infrastructure support from NHAI and Indian Railways. . 2) Expediting the execution of the NH-66 widening project and Central support for the Thiruvananthapuram MRTS project. . 3) Knowledge City project – Starting from Sam Pitroda’s vision, MoHRD can support the creation of a world-class master plan and facilitate the involvement of world-class knowledge institutional partners . 4) Enhance the funding for IISER, NIIST, IIST, IGNOU and so on, to enable them to expand their focus into more areas of research vital to the National interest; expedite the establishment of the long-delayed Indian Institute of Molecular Sciences . 5) Tie-ups with central govt research programs for prominent engineering schools of Thiruvananthapuram like College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram and Central assistance for the establishment of the Trivandrum Engineering Research and Technology (TREST) park at CET which involves cutting-edge research centers and incubators. . 6) Execution of Pax Indica: An Indian version of a Brookings Institute or Council on Foreign Relations, situated in Thiruvananthapuram a bit away from New Delhi’s busy policy making circuits . 7) Tie-ups with European or American Conservatories, Ateliers, Architecture schools and Film schools to enhance co-operation with prominent arts institutions in Thiruvananthapuram like College of Fine Arts, Swathi Thirunal College of Music etc in matters of fine-arts

We also look forward to your own suggestions to add to this list.

Once again, here is wishing good luck to Dr. Tharoor in his new role and hoping for the very best for Thiruvananthapuram in the next 15 months.

your city seems to be turning into a fanatics’ paradise…hijacking? elect people who represent your city’s roots and not those from kannur, palakkad etc and you might stand a chance. no point cribbing all over the internet…

“fanatics’ paradise”? Really? Here in Trivandrum, we are yet to hear of any one’s hands being chopped off recently or entire villages hiding political hitmen. While you are at it, why don’t you use other popular and worn-out cliche terms like nazis, KKK etc against us, Trivandrum public, who are asking in a civilized manner for a bit more imagination and not steal ideas?

As for the xenophobic behavior that you are advocating, no thanks – those from kannur, palakkad etc are still Indian citizens and are very welcome to participate in elections from Trivandrum. Yes, their roots might affect their outlook, but denying ANY INDIAN citizen from being elected in our constituency is not what a Trivandrum voter roots for, unlike you or other places in Kerala. We welcome everyone to our midst and wishes them to thrive. If some of them act in a thankless fashion, so be it. But we are NEVER going to change from the times we rooted for a Kannur native like King Marthandavarma because we felt his cause was just, over local feudal lords.

So, guy, get off the silly hyperbole and patronizing tone. Your advice has been heard, found to be deplorable and rejected.

Certain points which can perhaps be included are
1. Aerospace park is one thing whcih would be tailormade ,considering the ISRO, Air command and also MRO. There was some half-hearted mention in budget. The present Govt’s initiatives toward the capital appears more in jest rather than in earnest.If MP can take up this and give it a concrete shape and take it forward, it will be good. There was a proposal from Pratt and Whitney to take over KELtec long back which was quite predicatbly torpedoed by the ideological hotheads.
Pity that a CM whose obsession with one hugely expensive transportation project is nauseating to say the least, has absolutely no vision about developemnt or fairness.

2.Some real expert agency, even if it is from outside India, not some parochial overrated ‘cult’ figure, has to be appointed to identify an ideal mass transportation system for the city.

3. Probably, asking the MP to shift the proposed IIT location from his home district ia bit unfair.
IISER and IIST are already there. They should be nurtured to develop into world class universities.
The Grand old University of Kerala should be allocated Rs.100 crore to estabish a School of Nano technology or similar niche area in the next Budget of Centre.This was done for other old Universities in Kolkatta, Chennai etc earlier.

4. Let us not carry the baggage of the past. We all know the sentiments of people are driven by history, geography, demography and some new vested interest.Much of that cannot be discussed.
Probably our REpresentatives have to be more well-informed, and vigilant.

1. TVM CAMPUS of Central university of Kerala.
2. Revival of Keltron with central aid/MHRD & make it a center of excellence in microelectronics
3. Nanotech research center in technocity
4. Support of all kinds to expand ISRO in TVM district

A semiconductor fabrication plant is being planned by Government of India. I would request Shri Shashi Tharoor to bring in this plant to Thiruvananthapuram, considering the ecosystem of this city in technical acheivements.